Hello Fellow Yuneec Pilot!
Join our free Yuneec community and remove this annoying banner!
Sign up

Motor Status error codes

Joined
Feb 2, 2021
Messages
16
Reaction score
5
Age
71
I acquired a second hand Typhoon Q500 a few days ago that had been crashed going by the damage.

one of the motor pods had been cracked and unknown to me the ESC wires had been trapped between the broken plastic and had broken through the insulation on two of the wires.

it had been coming up with a 5 motor error but then seemed to start up ok after a few tries.

It fired up OK and got a few inches into the air and shut down, now nothing but 5 motor error

I hooked it up to my PC and went through the Telemetry logs and found the one where it failed on take off.

It shows motor status as 15 and then went to 0

I have found a burnt SCR on a ESC and wonder if this is the only damage or has it taken the main board with the damaged wiring.

Is there a list of motor status codes ?
 
Last edited:
15 (1111) - all motors good
14 (1110) - motor 1 bad
13 (1101) - motor 2 bad
11 (1011) - motor 3 bad
7 (0111) - motor 4 bad
0 (0000) - all motors bad

Other combinations are derived by converting the decimal number to binary and the digits with 0’s are the bad motors.
 
0 (0000) - all motors bad

So you are suggesting that it has most likely taken out the main controller board as well as the burnt ESC that I have found.

Or will a burnt or disconnected ESC cause a 0 fault code to be reported?

Just trying to work out what to do with, if its an ESC its viable but if its the Main board + an ESC I dont think I will bother to try to find parts as they seem a little scarce now.

edit is there a way to test motors with one ESC disconnected ?
 
Last edited:
You can test the motors using the GUI (download here Q500 GUI if you don’t have it yet) via the USB cable that came with the drone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Hawkie
You can test the motors using the GUI (download here Q500 GUI if you don’t have it yet) via the USB cable that came with the drone.
thankyou for that file, going to get away from computer for awhile now, will have a go latter tonight and see what I find
 
Okay. I’m in central Florida. I’ll catch up with you later today. It’s 1:15AM and time to get some sleep.
 
I’m in central Florida.
the other side of the world from me here in South Australia.

OK ran the program and every thing pased except the ESC test that failed

ran the ESC ID assianment and it said ESC 1234 failed

disconnected the data wire from the ESC and it said ESC 1234 failed

then disconnected the positive wire to the ESC and it said ESC 1234 failed

I then removed two of the three wires that feed the motor and it said ESC 1234 failed

I guess my next trick will be to open the drone and test for power as per attachment 47
 
The ESCs are controlled from processor with a multiplexer. Maybe the multiplexer was killed by the burnt ESC.
This is the only common part for the 4 ESCs.


br HE

EDIT: Sorry, Typhoon H has multiplexer, Q500 has not. PWM controlled by seperate CPU pins.
 
Last edited:
OK ran the program and every thing pased except the ESC test that failed
If motor 1 fails ESC ID, it would be normal for the system to report 1234 failed, even if 2,3 and 4 are OK. It can't move past an ESC that won't ID. It eventually times out, and assumes all other motors failed. Which motor has the "burnt SCR on a ESC" you mentioned earlier?
Motors.JPG

When you say "Everything passed except the ESC test", does that mean all 4 motors started (one at a time) when you used the "Enable Testing" box and ran the motors one at a time by clicking with the mouse?
 
Which motor has the "burnt SCR on a ESC" you mentioned earlier?
#2 has the burnt ESC


If motor 1 fails ESC ID, it would be normal for the system to report 1234 failed

that is interesting in that the #1 Blue LED is dull compared to 2 3 4 ....

#2 ESC is completly isolated now, I determined #2 was dead as it was hot and one of the ms fets was fried.

When you say "Everything passed except the ESC test",
see pic file
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot 2021-02-04 092604.png
    Screenshot 2021-02-04 092604.png
    38.8 KB · Views: 10
I notice in the pic it looks like you had "Testing Enabled". The motor test is not sequential. You can test any motor, one at a time, in any order. Did any of the motors run when you removed the props and ran the motor tests?

I assume when you did the ESC assignments, the GUI first highlighted motor #1, and you gave it a few spins in the indicated direction. Did you get ANY response at all on the ESC for Motor #1?

You said "that is interesting in that the #1 Blue LED is dull compared to 2 3 4 ...." I assume you meant the blue LED on the ESC itself, not the larger "Under Motor" led you normally see. The weaker signal might indicate some degradation on that ESC also. You mentioned "#2 ESC is completely isolated now". Do you mean you have removed all of it's wires, including the power wires and control wires? If so, did the blue LED on #1 remain less bright that the other two remaining ESCs?
 
I notice in the pic it looks like you had "Testing Enabled". The motor test is not sequential. You can test any motor, one at a time, in any order. Did any of the motors run when you removed the props and ran the motor tests?
No motors ran on individual motor tests


I assume when you did the ESC assignments, the GUI first highlighted motor #1, and you gave it a few spins in the indicated direction. Did you get ANY response at all on the ESC for Motor #1?

No response at all, it timed out and reported all failed


You said "that is interesting in that the #1 Blue LED is dull compared to 2 3 4 ...." I assume you meant the blue LED on the ESC itself, not the larger "Under Motor" led you normally see.

On closer inspection, the large blue led is not working and what I could see was the led on the esc.

You mentioned "#2 ESC is completely isolated now". Do you mean you have removed all of it's wires, including the power wires and control wires?

yes control lead unpluged and + power wire cut, and 2 of the 3 motor wires unsoldered from ESC #2 with the fried mos fet


checking esc #1 there is 12v on the ESC

While I had the #1 blue led off I removed the control plug and retested, still esc's report failed and Motors 3 & 4 fail test and fail to run.
 
To clarify, please confirm the blue ESC led on #1 is still less bright than the blue ESC leds on #3 and #4.
There are actually two blue leds on each ESC. One of each should flicker for a few seconds during power up, and then turn off. The other blue ESC led on each ESC should remain solid. Is this what you are seeing on #1, #3 and #4?
Are the "under motor" LEDs on for all four motors? You mentioned "large Blue LED" earlier. Were you talking about an under motor LED?

It's normal for the motors to NOT respond to testing when you have ESC failure to assign. I had forgotten that, but just confirmed it on a healthy Q500.
 
To clarify, please confirm the blue ESC led on #1 is still less bright than the blue ESC leds on #3 and #4.

I assumed the led I could see on motor one was blue as that is what I could see, BUT The main LED that is visible when flying is not lit on motor one and what I could see were the ecs status leds on the board.

There are actually two blue leds on each ESC. One of each should flicker for a few seconds during power up, and then turn off.

OK I have removed the covers from all ESC's now to check status leds

motor one The led closest to the edge is on solid and the other is blinking.

motor two completely disconnected

motor three and four the outer led is solid, the inner flashed for a couple of seconds and went off with a beep from the controller.


*****Just to jump ahead I believe you are about to tell me #1 & #2 ESC's have failed.
 
Yep. I think the mainboard is fine, and you just need to replace those two ESCs. Could have been a lot worse.

do you have any suggestions for a reliable supplier that posts international at fair prices please.

I have hunted the Australian RCgroups for sale pages but no one seems to be selling new or wrecked parts here.



Edit I guess the next step would be to open it up and move ESC #3 to esc position on main bord to confirm the main board has survived ??
 
You could try moving things around, but I do not think it will let you test motors until you can assign all four ESCs.

The best place to get the parts is Yuneec Skins, in California USA. I know he ships to Australia, but have no idea what the shipping would be. Try this link. Front and Rear ESCs are marketed as different things, but they are actually the same except the color of the twisted LED wire insulation. (The electricity can't tell the difference. ;) )

Q500 Parts (yuneecskins.com)
 
The only Australian supplier I know of is @Haydn , between him and @Yuneec Skins you should be able to get repaired.

Now you know why I said that @WTFDproject could give better assistance to you.
 

New Posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
20,955
Messages
241,599
Members
27,284
Latest member
csandoval